Photo: Reuters ArchiveEFE
Mexico's federal government announced the deployment of an additional 500 army troops to the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, which has been wracked by turf battles among drug cartels and attacks by the gangs on the civilian population.
The 500 soldiers "will bolster the significant presence of federal forces" already in Tamaulipas, federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said Thursday without offering details on the total number of military personnel deployed to that state, where 183 bodies were located in 40 clandestine graves in April.
According to the daily Reforma, 8,435 soldiers have been deployed to combat organized crime in the 4th Military Region, which comprises Tamaulipas and the neighboring states of Nuevo Leon and San Luis Potosi, the largest troop presence in the country's 12 Military Regions.
President Felipe Calderon has given the army the lead role in the fight against the country's numerous, well-armed drug cartels, deploying 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 Federal Police to drug-war hot spots, especially in northern Mexico.
Tamaulipas has been wracked by a wave of violence since early 2010, when the Gulf cartel and former allies Los Zetas began a brutal war for control of that region.
Hit men employed by those criminal gangs also have kidnapped people en route to the Mexico-U.S. border - either for ransom or to recruit them as couriers or enforcers - and killed those who resisted.
The one-year deployment of these 500 soldiers to support the Tamaulipas Public Safety Secretariat, which oversees the state police force, was the result of an agreement between the Tamaulipas and federal governments, Poire said.
The federal security spokesman said the deployment is a stopgap measure while the Tamaulipas state police force is purged of corrupt personnel, a process also being carried out in the rest of the country.
State and local police in Mexico are poorly paid and are often confronted with the choice known here as "plomo o plata" (lead or silver): accept a bribe for looking the other way or get killed for refusing.
BRAVO Good move. Can't wait for the journalist and human rights lackys to start whining. A kill ratio needs to be started like in Vietnam I would like to see a 50 to 1 until being a NARCO SLUT was not quiet as attractive.
ReplyDeleteAnother 500 troops to Tamaulipas might excite foul mouthed US Right Wing posters to BB like the first Anonymous buddy in line here today,
ReplyDelete'The 500 soldiers "will bolster the significant presence of federal forces" already in Tamaulipas, federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said Thursday..'
but this is a public relations liar this guy, Mr. Alejandro Poire certainly is. Actually there has been a complete abandonment of multiple areas around the state of Tamaulipas by any and all law enforcement people, including the Mexican military, as the Federal government of Calderon retreated from taking action previously in that state, allowing two cartels to use the state as a free fire zone in their own pitched battles.
'State and local police in Mexico are poorly paid and are often confronted with the choice known here as "plomo o plata" (lead or silver): accept a bribe for looking the other way or get killed for refusing.'
Everybody in Tamulipas is poorly paid though. PRI and PAN policies combined have seen to that. The money made from economic activity is allowed to be captured by the super rich elites in Monterrey and elsewhere by these crooked politicians, leaving much of the rest of the population near destitute in many cases. That's why the guns only policy of Calderon is so damn false and phony. Much more than that is needed. And Calderon and PAN have nothing for the people.
HA.HA.HA......CALDERON..POR FAVOR...
ReplyDeleteAnd I totally agree with the comment by "Ardent"@3:35PM...